The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) began its long and winding road to the FIFA World Cup – South Africa 2010 last night with goals aplenty as AFC’s minnows battle it
out for berths at round two of competition.
A first preliminary round encompassing all AFC nations save for Australia, Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Iran got underway with Syria
defeating Afghanistan (3-0).
Lebanon posted a big 4-1 victory over India in the opening leg of the first round of Asian qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup on Monday
night.
Sunil Chhetri gave India the lead on the stroke of 30 minutes but this was all the visitors could manage. Roda Antar took just five minutes to
neutralize the advantage before Mohamad Ghadar (61) and Mahmoud El Ali (62) hit quickfire goals to make the game safe for the hosts. Ghadar netted his brace 15 minutes from time.
The return leg takes place in Chennai on October 28 and Bob Houghton’s India have a mountain to climb if they are to have a sniff at second round action.
Meanwhile, Singapore destroyed Palestine 4-0 after an inspired performance which saw them leading 1-0 upto the break at the Al Rayyan Stadium in Doha, Qatar.
Radojko Avramovic’s men were fired into the lead by Shi Jiayi a minute before the half time whistle and the same player struck the second goal eight minutes into the restart. John Wilkinson made it
3-0 in the 73rd minute and Noh Alam Shah sealed the win with his 86th minute goal.
“It was a good result,” said Avramovic.
“I felt tonight we scored the goals that we couldn’t score against the UAE (last month) and in the June friendly tournament (against DPR Korea, Saudi Arabia and Australia) so it was good to see all
the things we tried out at training finally coming off.”
“(Shi) Jiayi scored two very good goals and I felt that John (Wilkinson) did well, providing extra security in midfield and doing plenty of running and passing.”
“I am happy to see that no one is seriously injured so the players must take care of themselves when they go back to their clubs and only then can we look at the second leg.”
Singapore host Palestine on October 28 in the return leg at the National Stadium.
In Muscat, Oman beat Nepal 2-0, courtesy goals from Fauzi Basheer (5) and Hassan Mudaffar (22 penalty), at the Sultan Qaboos Stadium for a handy lead into the second leg which takes place on
October 28 in Kathmandu.
Syria thrashed Afghanistan 3-0 with late goals from Mohamed Zeno (73 and 83 penalty) Maher Al Sayed (80 penalty) at the Aleppo International Stadium.
Yemen demolished Maldives 3-0 at the Ali Muhsin Al-Muriasi Stadium in Sana.
Story courtesy AFC Media…